By Adam Brandolph

Published: Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 12:58 p.m.
Updated: Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Attorneys on Wednesday selected 12 jurors and four alternates who will hear the corruption case of suspended Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin and her sister and former judicial staffer Janine Orie.

The jurors include a 29-year-old Munhall woman, a Cranberry woman who works at a bank on the North Side, a mother of two school-aged children from Plum and an engineering technician who lives in Ross.

The 9 women and three men jurors and two men and two women alternate jurors will begin hearing opening statements in the trial Friday before Common Pleas Judge Lester G. Nauhaus. The trial is expected to last about four weeks.

Melvin, 56, of Marshall, is accused of illegally using her taxpayer-funded Superior Court staff to work on her 2003 and 2009 campaigns for the Supreme Court. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Melvin has been suspended from the high court since May 18. The state Court of Judicial Discipline halted her $195,309 annual salary in August.

Adam Brandolph is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-391-0927 or abrandolph@tribweb.com.

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